ok! hello, this is the chapter where they are actually ? somewhat good friends

i hope it didn't move too quickly, i tried to space this out so :^))

"Get up." Selena shook Demi's shoulder, "Get up."

"No." Demi said firmly, wanting to continue the long-delved nap that she began when she got home from school. "I'm tired. Muy cansada."

"Shut up, nerd," Selena pulled the girl off of the couch roughly, knocking her onto the floor with an unsettling thump. "Get up, I wanna go to Candlelight."

"The fuck is Dandlelight?" the tired girl groaned angrily, trying to reach for her covers but found they had already been thrown into a separate pile when Selena had tried to wake her up.

"Candlelight!" Selena corrected, hitting her in the shoulder with a pillow. "It's a super cool dance event hosted by the students, and there's none of those stupid school rules like we have at prom and homecoming. I wanna go really badly but I don't wanna go alone and everyone else I know was busy."

Demi paused, before yelling, "I was busy!"

"Not anymore!" Selena sung happily, fluffing her curls and her dress that she had decided to already climb into.

"So, what? I'm your pity date?" Demi asked with a yawn, managing to finally stand up. The other girl scoffed and gave her a desperate look, which Demi eventually caved into.

It wasn't long before Demi was being forced to try on many different dresses, from strapless to frilly and short to literally tripping on the ends as she walked. Selena just had so many dresses that it was hard to remember when it would stop.

"No more!" the frilled girl shouted as the girl appeared with another dress. "This is fine."

The girl gestured to her maroon-colored two-piece dress, with the frilly red skirt and the loose-fitted shorts under all of the frills. The top was coated in white and red sequins that faded up and down. It fit nicely on her, too, but Selena just scoffed.

"I guess. Now come on, let me do your makeup!"

Selena's dress was a nice pastel shade of both white and pink, the white top was fit tightly around her and looked as if it was a normal white shirt, until you noticed the light pink, ribbon belt around the waist. It moved into a skirt of the same pink, that had slight ruffles ending at just above her knees. It was so casual, nothing like something Demi would think she would wear.

The make-up was awkward, because whenever Selena's hand would brush against Demi's face, Demi couldn't help but feel out of place. Her makeup was never so extravagant, she mostly settled for concealer and slight blush. Selena pushed Demi's lips together as she painted candy-red lip gloss against it, smiling at her creation when she pulled back.

"Beautiful." Selena admired, making Demi's cheeks go pink without any blush needed.

"Thanks," she sheepishly whispered.

"Not you!" The dressy girl laughed, holding up a mirror to the other girl's face. "I was talking about my beautiful creation!"

Demi's face flushed a bit more, but tried to push out her stupidity as she stood up. She had to admit that she looked a bit better than she expected, but her expectation weren't too high in the long run. Selena slipped her fingers between hers and pulled her out of the door sharply. Demi barely had any time to process the shapes flying by her and getting thrown into Selena's car, because she was too busy staring at their interlocked hands.

Why was she feeling so weird? She should be happy that Selena was so open to her now, she should be happy that she was no longer getting her head shoved into the lockers. Instead, she felt incomplete - she felt… different. God dammit, brain.

The party was… way different than Demi expected. She'd expected actual candles, a disco ball in the middle and a slow song playing sweetly in the background. Instead, the floors were sticky and cracked tiles, the only lights were three-dollar hang-up lights that were essentially uncolored christmas lights. The songs were upbeat and rap music, with people grinding their pelvises against the floor and other people while some other couples shared makeout sessions on the dirty ground. The punch bowl looked disgusting, and there was even beer by the table, which everyone seemed to be grabbing freely. In another corner, thick clouds loomed over them, along with the buds that hung from their mouth. Demi turned back to Selena abruptly, gripping her shoulder in fear.

"We need to get out of here."

Selena just laughed, patting her head before prying her away. "Don't do that, you'll smudge my beautiful makeup. Why should we leave? It's fun here."

Selena waved to her friends, beginning to walk over - before Demi stopped her quickly. "Wait, I'm scared, I don't like it here."

"Just go talk to people, loser," Selena joked, proceeding to walk over. Now, Demi was alone in a crowd of underage drinkers and she didn't know what to do. Why would Selena ever want to come to one of these things?

thanks for reading ! this party is gonna be wild, i hope you're prepared